Constructing a Masterpiece

From a look at the artwork filling the home of Brett Stager, you’d never know most of it came into the house as cast-away construction materials.

But that’s the medium Pickerington resident Stager, 48, chose. Over the last decade or so, he’s been inspired to add more and more work to his collection, and today, almost every wall and corner in the house plays host to a unique – and, in many cases, huge – piece of art.

Stager, owner of Stager Roofing Co., has been in the construction business for 30 years. His company long ago branched out from just roofing to all manner of other construction work – just as he himself has branched out from just construction.

His work gave him access to all manner of metals and other materials. Stager was an art buff to begin with – he’s a big fan of Picasso in particular – and began repurposing the leftovers from his construction jobs to create some art of his own.

“I always liked abstract sculptures,” he says.

Though he has no formal training, Stager pushed forward and quickly began to create ever bigger and more elaborate works. Wood, metals, concrete, granite, glass, paint and acrylics are just a few of the tools in his arsenal.

“I don’t think that there’s one (material) I haven’t used,” he says.

Inspiration can strike Stager at any time, and when it does, he tries to start on a new project or touch up an old project as soon as possible.

“I have to do it or else it drives me crazy,” he says.

Though he often uses tools in his artwork, Stager has no machines to aid him. Metal, for instance, has to be bent by hand; that’s where

Stager’s background in powerlifting comes in handy.

“It is absolutely as old-style as you can get,” he says. “I just find ways to bend stuff.”

The centerpiece of the house is the huge, glass-bottomed balcony Stager built over the living room, and it’s one of the first things to draw the eye. But the more one looks around, the more interesting pieces one spots.

Stager can point to any item in the house and explain what materials it contains and how he got it to look the way it does. A kitchen window is framed with tempered glass that he broke, arranging the shards into a pattern. Pieces of red granite are arranged in triangles on metal poles protruding from a stone base. A plaster of Paris face was painted red and black, broken into pieces, and mounted on an aluminum rack. A huge slab of wood was burned with a torch, then scraped off to different extents in different places to create multiple colors without paint. A huge sheet of leather was painted with a picture of an otherworldly creature. A piece of a railroad crossing guard was smashed in multiple places to give it an abstract shape. Long sheets of multicolored metal were weaved together in a basket-like pattern. A dining room mirror is framed in steel.

The basement is designed with an industrial look. For a piece with two concentric rings, Stager used poured concrete and fiberglass mesh to reinforce the rings so they can move around. One wall hosts a long piece of ground and painted aluminum; another has what looks from a distance to be an abstract painting, but on closer inspection is recycled aluminum and steel rebar in an aluminum frame from commercial building windows. The basement is also where Stager keeps his exercise equipment, and it’s rounded out by a slot machine, a pinball machine, a foosball table, an air hockey table, a 60-inch flat-screen TV, two futons and a sauna.

Midway up the stairs to the second floor is a piece of concrete backer board that was colored with glass, solder, paint and even crayons. In a room at the top of the stairs, near the glass balcony, is a long, two-inch thick slab of Styrofoam laced with stainless steel cable.

A walkway connects the second floor to the balcony, which is reinforced with beams. The surface of the balcony itself is ¾-inch polycarbonate, the kind of glass used in bulletproof windows, and three of its four corners host sculptures. On one of the walls around it is a huge painting of a woman colored in blue, painted on wood from a coffee table that was going to be thrown out.

“I just turned it over and used it for something to paint on,” Stager says.

A circular piece resembling a yin-yang symbol in one of the bedrooms is suede on wood with aluminum and copper in it as well. Another bedroom holds a circular mirror mounted on a larger circle made of wood and aluminum.

Even where there isn’t work, there’s evidence of Stager’s work; he’s expanded several rooms in the house and added closets and other functional spaces in areas where he knew there would be space.

Though his artwork is only visible these days to people who visit his house or Facebook page, Stager is looking for more exposure – and, he hopes, opportunities to parlay his work into support for charities, particularly those related to multiple sclerosis.

It’s a cause close to Stager’s heart. After struggling with the disease for years, his mother, Susan Wolfe, lost her battle with MS last year.

Stager’s girlfriend, Lisa Kessler, recalls a time when Wolfe was confined to a wheelchair but wanted to see her son’s artwork, so Stager physically lifted her wheelchair and carried it around the house, including up and down stairs, so she could get a look at everything.

“I thought that was a really sweet moment between him and his mother, and thankfully, with him being a powerlifter, he was strong enough to do that,” Kessler says.

Stager jokes about the confusion he sometimes inspires in others – most people, he says, wouldn’t see a construction worker with a background in powerlifting and a motorcycle in the garage as an artist or even an art fan.